Calleigh's Outfit
by Beginner Blue
Summary: COMPLETE. After an auto wreck can Calleigh keep Horatio from bleeding to death? Plot be damned. My first, please R&R.
1. Default Chapter

Author: Beginner Blue

Title: Calleigh's Outfit

Disclaimer: The characters belong to CBS, I just wish the Bruck would treat them with a little more TLC.

_"All of my senses overthrown  
__by the might of your skin."  
_ David Gray, Falling Free

"Come on, Handsome, wake up. _Wake! Up_!"

Calleigh sounded rather urgent so Horatio did his best to comply. He felt someone gently ease his sunglasses away from his face. Calleigh, he supposed. Horatio dragged reluctant eyelids upward and gradually her face came into focus.

"Oh, thank God. Can you sit up, Horatio?"

"Uhhh…give me a minute…"

"I smell gas," she interrupted urgently, hooking his sunglasses into the neck of her shirt. "We don't have a minute, we have to get out." She reached for his arm. "Here, let me help."

"I can't, Calleigh."

"Of course you can," she insisted, panic flaring in huge blue green eyes. "Why can't you?"

He didn't say anything, just reached up and flipped away the left side of his suit jacket.

Calleigh gasped loudly. A sharp section of metal framework had jabbed him in the back, thrust all the way through his body and protruded about an inch upward from his abdomen. Horatio's blue shirt was rapidly becoming soaked in blood.

Calleigh took a deep breath, tore her eyes away from his side and locked them on his face. "Here's what we're going to do. You're going to get up. I'm going to help you. Then we're going to walk away from this wreck together. And you are _not_ going to pass out on me until we're at least a hundred yards away. Got it, Lieutenant?"

He considered her words for a second, noting that Calleigh had forced herself to look back at the jagged strip of metal piercing his torso. He saw her judge the angle carefully and when her eyes, wide and afraid, flicked back to his face Horatio managed a soft smile.

"Got it," he whispered. "I'll try. But you have to promise me something, Calleigh."

She was all ready moving into position above him, looking for a spot where she could brace her feet firmly in the wreckage. "You don't have to say it, Horatio. I promise. But you have to _really_ try. Now."

Horatio closed his eyes and sucked in a long, slow breath. "Okay. Let's go." He opened his eyes wide and reached for Calleigh's hands. Pain literally sliced him in half as Calleigh pulled him upwards and away from the framework. He screamed out loud, using the momentum of the shout to propel himself towards her until he was actually standing on shaky legs, freed from the wreckage.

It would have ended right there with Horatio dropping to his knees but Calleigh was a lot stronger than she looked. As soon as he was upright she yanked his left hand up onto her left shoulder, threw her right arm across his upper back and locked her fingers in his armpit.

"Walk!" she hollered, half dragging half pushing him forward, and somehow Horatio gritted his teeth and managed to move his feet, although most of their forward motion was Calleigh's doing, not his. He had no idea how far they went on like that together, could have been ten yards, could have been a mile. But eventually the pain just overwhelmed him, his knees gave out and he went down, dragging Calleigh with him.


	2. Chapter 2

Horatio opened his eyes to the glorious sight of Calleigh tucking his sunglasses carefully into the front of her black lace bra. His bewildered brain tried to work out why she was half naked even as he watched her fold her shirt up into a thick pad and press it hard against his abdomen. Her hooded jacket was no where to be seen and it took him a full minute to come to the realization that she must have placed it underneath him to try and stop the bleeding.

"Help's on the way," she reassured him when she saw that his eyes were open. "They're sending a chopper. Won't be long."

He opened his mouth to ask how far he'd managed to walk and heard himself groan instead.

"Don't try and talk, Horatio," she pleaded, so he didn't, he just watched her beautiful blue green eyes as she worked to stop his bleeding. Her face was really the only thing that he could see clearly, anyway, through the fog. Funny weather for the Everglades this time of year. Or maybe it was just him who was foggy. Horatio gave up trying to think.

Calleigh checked the compresses. "Oh God, you're losing way too much blood."

"Hmmm…" Horatio really didn't care. He let his eyes drift pleasantly shut.

Vaguely through the buzzing in his ears he heard Calleigh shouting at him but he was too tired to try and figure out what she wanted. Maybe she would go away and let him sleep. But he felt her grab his shoulders and when she shook them none too gently the sharp stab of pain in his gut snapped him wide awake. His eyes flew open to Calleigh's close, alarmed face.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "God, I am _so_ sorry. But you have to stay awake, Horatio. Let's talk."

"Talking's good now?" he mumbled, and she laughed a little before it caught on a sob. "How far'd I get?"

"Far enough," she answered. "Fifty feet or so. Didn't you hear it go?"

"Nope. Too bad. I like explosions … as long as … you know …" Completely exhausted, his voice trailed off. He wished Calleigh would just be quiet and let him go to sleep. But she looked so worried. The tears on her face bothered him and he wondered why she was crying. Maybe she was hurt, too, like he was …

_Oh God, maybe she was hurt_. Abruptly Horatio tried to sit up. "Calleigh, are you o…"

"No!" she screamed as he managed to get half way up and then froze with a cry of pain. "Horatio, don't move!" Calleigh let go of the compress and guided him gently back down to the ground with one hand on his chest while she cradled the back of his head with the other. "I'm fine," she reassured him quickly, resuming the pressure on his wound. "Not even a bruise."

It took a moment before the pain wore down enough that he could speak. "Well, you wanted me to wake up … didn't you?" he gasped, still breathing hard.

"That's not quite what I had in mind," Calleigh scolded and then mumbled something about trying to perform proper first aid and him not helping much. Horatio's head was swimming and he was suddenly having a lot of trouble hearing her.

"I promise … I'll behave …." he gasped. "But it won't be easy … with you … in that outfit."

She summoned up a sassy grin for his benefit. "Watch it there, big boy. My present state of attire is entirely your fault."

Horatio laughed which turned out to be a really bad idea. He started choking and it escalated to a coughing fit. He just couldn't stop and soon he was engaged in a desperate fight for air.

Calleigh bent close. Her fingers were in his hair. "Easy, Handsome," she crooned. "You're fine, you're okay." But her voice was trembling and he wasn't fine at all. There was no air anywhere, only hot, coppery liquid rising up in his throat. He hung onto the image of Calleigh's face, her eyes, for as long as he could. And then she was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

When Alexx hurried into the Intensive Care waiting room she found Calleigh the only one there. Her friend was huddled in a chair, wrapped in a standard issue ambulance blanket. She had a full to the brim paper cup of coffee clutched in her hands and Horatio's sunglasses were perched haphazardly on her head. Calleigh didn't seem to notice her, even when Alexx pried the cup from her frozen grip and set it carefully on a table.

She knelt down in front of her friend and took both of Calleigh's cold hands in her warm ones. "Calleigh?" she said softly. "I'm sorry it took so long for me to get here. How's Horatio?"

Calleigh still didn't react and Alexx shifted gears rapidly from worrying about one friend to worrying about two. The blanket on Calleigh's shoulders fell open a little at the front and Alexx noticed that she was wearing only a bra underneath. It just took a second for her to figure out where the rest of Calleigh's clothes had gone.

"Here, take this." Alexx was wearing an apple green tank top and matching sweater. She peeled the outer layer off, eased the blanket away from Calleigh's shoulders and helped her slip the sweater on, quickly doing up the row of tiny buttons. "It's not really your color, sugar, but it'll have to do."

"Thanks," Calleigh whispered, and Alexx gave her a brief hug before pulling a chair close and sitting down facing her friend.

"Can you tell me what happened?" she asked gently.

Calleigh started slowly but she did manage to eventually choke out the entire story. "They haven't told me much, Alexx," she ended on a sob, "except that he lost an awful lot of blood. As if I didn't know." Calleigh sniffed loudly and gratefully accepted a tissue from her friend. "When they moved him from Emergency to Intensive Care," she continued after drying her eyes, "they said he wasn't going to need major surgery. That's a good sign, isn't it?" Calleigh's eyes, all ready filling with fresh tears, pleaded for the right answer.

"Sure is," Alexx reassured her, but Calleigh didn't seem comforted. "Tell you what. Horatio has me listed as his personal physician. Why don't I see what I can find out? Will you be okay alone for a few minutes?"

Calleigh nodded woodenly and Alexx squeezed her hand before she left. "Be right back," she assured her friend and disappeared in the direction of the nurse's station. True to her word, she reappeared in less than five minutes and reclaimed her chair.

"Thank you, Calleigh," the M.E. said softly.

That wasn't what Calleigh expected to hear and it jolted her out of her daze. "What for?" she asked, baffled.

"Straight from the attending physician's mouth. First aid applied at the scene saved Lieutenant Caine's life," Alexx quoted. "That would be you, Calleigh."

Calleigh raised her eyes and Alexx saw hope in them for the first time. "He's going to be okay?" she whispered.

"I think so," Alexx replied. "By some miracle the metal entered and exited far enough to the side where it missed hitting anything vital. Two broken ribs, that's it, and he's very, very weak from massive blood loss which is always a danger. They'll keep him in ICU until he regains consciousness and then he'll be reevaluated. But I honestly believe he'll make a full recovery."

Calleigh closed her eyes. "Thank God," was the only intelligent thing she could think of to say.

-

"Take your time, honey," Alexx crooned, and he did, staring at the two women standing next to the bed as if he couldn't quite decipher what he was looking at.

"Am I seeing double?" he finally whispered. Calleigh and Alexx grew concerned for a moment until they glanced at each other and remembered the matching green sweaters.

"No," Calleigh said softly, squeezing his hand. "We're both here, Horatio."

"Oh. Okay." His eyes drifted shut again and Calleigh glanced at Alexx for reassurance. The M.E. studied the impressive array of monitors blinking and bleeping at the head of the bed before she replied.

"He's fine," she reported in a calming tone. "But between the blood loss and the pain killers I wouldn't expect a stimulating conversation quite yet."

"Lot you know," Horatio mumbled.

Calleigh smiled. "How you doing, Handsome?"

"Tired," he admitted, but he opened his eyes again and stared at her. "Liked it better … before …" he said softly, and Calleigh shook her head, uncertain as to what he meant.

"Your outfit," he elaborated, and Calleigh giggled which made Alexx grin.

"Just don't expect me to model it for you a second time," Calleigh warned him, then wished she could bite the words back as Horatio's chuckle turned instantly into a grimace of pain.

"And try not to laugh," Alexx added, wincing in sympathy.

Horatio's face gradually relaxed as exhaustion prevailed over pain. He felt himself drifting again and fought it valiantly until someone whispered "sleep, Horatio," and he did.

FIN


End file.
